


i do love

by ThisJoyAndI



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Future Fic, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4233792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisJoyAndI/pseuds/ThisJoyAndI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(my ma and pa)<br/>Twenty-one years after Annie leaves for her internship, Sebastian Winger graduates from high-school. 'It’s so hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since Sebastian arrived, a tiny red squalling thing that made Annie weep the second he was born, and made Jeff weep the second the nurse proclaimed him to be a boy, asking Jeff if he wanted to hold his son.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	i do love

**Author's Note:**

> 'I could live a million years, and I could spend every minute of it doing important things, but at the end of it all I would only have lived half a life if I have not raised a son' - Jeff Winger
> 
> i.e. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER SAID EVER

Jeff is just about to celebrate his sixty-second birthday when Sebastian graduates from high school, and it might just be the second happiest day of his life – the first being, of course, the day Annie agreed to marry him. His son, blond haired but thankfully not cursed with the Winger high forehead, is standing up on stage delivering his valedictorian speech, and as they watch from the audience Annie's grip on his hand tightens, her blue eyes welling up with tears.

It is nothing short of a perfect moment, he thinks, as he sits beside his wife and listens to their son speak. 

 _Their son_.

It’s so hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since Sebastian arrived, a tiny, red squalling thing that made Annie weep the second he was born, and made Jeff weep the second the nurse proclaimed him to be a boy, asking Jeff if he wanted to hold his son. He wasn't lying when he told Pierce's dad that his life would be meaningless if he did not have a son, if he didn't have the chance to raise his own kids the way he will always wish his dad raised him.

Sebastian and his sisters might aggravate both him and Annie beyond belief sometimes but they're his kids, the one thing he'll leave behind when he dies that actually means something. They never cared that their dad faked a law degree and used to push down his true feelings, they never cared that their mom was addicted to pills and had to rebuild her life. Their kids loved them from the second they were born, because Jeff and Annie are their parents, and Dad is a title he's never been unhappy to have.  

It's been eighteen years since Sebastian was born, and now their baby is a man, graduating from high-school and off to Colorado University in the fall. Jeff was petrified the moment he was born, scared that despite his best intentions he would fall prey to the inevitable Winger DNA and screw his son up just like his own father had him, but it’s been eighteen years (and  _a lot_  of hard work, he won’t lie) and he thinks he's done okay with all of his kids. Sebastian is probably the most well-rounded kid he knows, possessing his mother’s drive, his father’s cockiness, and enough positive influences in his life to ensure their son will succeed at whatever he wants to do. The twins, however, well they need a little more work before he and Annie release them into the world - their daughters have more of the Winger persuasiveness than he thinks is necessary, as well as their mother's quiet ruthlessness. It's his daughters he'll have to worry about, not Sebastian. Seb always was the good child. 

When Jeff thinks back on what he was like at eighteen, he's immensely thankful that Sebastian is nothing like him. At eighteen, he was totally lost, drifting from mediocre job to mediocre job, unable to decide what he wanted to do with his life. He tried out for numerous reality shows, and he's very glad Annie only ever managed to get her hands on the one audition tape. His son is nothing like he was at eighteen, Sebastian has drive, he has goals in mind that he wants to achieve. He definitely gets that from his mother, and it's yet another thing that makes him glad that twenty years ago Annie agreed to be his wife and the mother of his children. 

And while it's sad that he probably won’t live long enough to see his grandchildren graduate from high school, it’s sort of ironic too. Now that Jeff’s finally content with his life, now that the struggle of raising kids and trying to work at the same time is nearly over, he’s probably going to die soon. God knows he’s never been kind on his liver, and no amount of eating healthy and exercising is going to erase that damage. He doesn’t know anything for certain, but he does knows somehow that sooner rather than later he’s going to die. Annie might protest that it will never happen, that she won't let him leave her until she's ready, but he’s had enough experience with death and loss, they both have, to know that everyone has to suffer through it eventually. 

But god, the last twenty-one years have been the happiest ones of his life. Annie, his  _wife_ , is just as amazing as a forty-five year old mother, wife and FBI agent as she was when he first met her as a nineteen year old community college freshman. His hair might ( _finally,_ as Annie likes to bemoan, screwing up her nose at him in the mirror as she dyes her own hair) be turning grey, and he may have more wrinkles on his face than he'd like, but he’s happy. He has Sebastian, he has Hannah and Imogen, and he has Annie. Jeff has everything he ever wanted, could ever dream of, and he’s so very thankful for it.

The graduation ceremony ends with thunderous applause, breaking him out of his thoughts, and Annie gently dabs at her eyes with a tissue, smiling softly.

“We did it,” she murmurs, sniffling as she watches their son throw his cap up in the air with the rest of his classmates. The caps merge in the air into a mass of red and gold, and he drapes an arm around Annie, pressing a kiss to her temple. She smells like vanilla and strawberry, and for a moment it is as if the last twenty years haven't passed.

“We did it,” he repeats, titling her head up to press his lips against hers gently. “Congratulations, Mrs. Winger. One down, two to go,” he teases against her lips, a statement to which Annie rolls her eyes at, standing up and smoothing her dress down. Hannah and Imogen have long since fled their company, both proclaiming in unison that they'd find them and Sebastian later. Jeff suspects that they're off congratulating one of their brother's many, many male friends, but hey, no harm no foul right?   

“Let’s go find our son, Mr. Winger,” Annie says, holding out her hand. Jeff links his fingers with hers without reservation, and they walk away hand-in-hand, surrounded by the eager chatter of their son's newly-graduated classmates.

\---

In the end, Sebastian finds them before they do, his parents having been side-tracked by talking to the Mitchells. When they'd first moved into the neighboured, Nicholas Sr. had slapped Jeff on the back and loudly (somewhat drunkenly) congratulated him on landing such a catch. It had taken a few conversations, but Jeff had finally managed to convince him that no, Annie was not his 'trophy wife'... she was just his  _wife_.  

In fact, Annie's a freaking FBI agent whilst he's just a teacher, and a close to retirement age teacher at that, so if anyone is a trophy spouse, it's most definitely him.

Further encounters with the elder Nicholas Mitchell were somewhat awkward after that initial blunder, but his son has always been one of Sebastian’s closest friends, the boys running track and joining school-related groups together. When their son had announced that he wanted to join the debate team with Nick, Jeff had been unable to contain his laughter, Annie slapping his chest as he laughed and laughed in their kitchen, Sebastian’s eyebrow arching questioningly in the same way his mother’s did.

Jeff never did explain to their son why the idea of him joining the debate team was so hilarious, but he figures Sebastian doesn’t need to know that story, not really.

“Mom, Dad!” Sebastian calls out, a grin on his face and his diploma in his hands. They turn around, and Annie beams at their son. 

He hurries over to them, his cap missing from his head, and Annie draws him into her arms as soon as he reaches them. The Mitchell excuse themselves, Nicholas Sr. clapping Sebastian on the shoulder in congratulations as he and his wife leave in search of their own son. Sebastian is nearly as tall as Jeff is, but his height will never stop Annie from holding him in her arms the same way she held him as a baby, carefully and tenderly, as if she feared he might break if her grip was too tight. She murmurs something soft in his ear, and their son grins even wider at her words, pressing a kiss to her cheek as she withdraws her arms from around his back.

“Thanks mom,” he tells her, straightening up, and Annie merely nods up at him, tearing up once more. Annie never got a proper graduation of her own, not from high school, and he knows that she’s so proud of their son for achieving such a milestone. 

But she should be proud of herself too, because it was her who came home from a long day at the office and sat with Sebastian in the kitchen, helping him with his homework whilst Jeff cooked dinner. His son might be the most intelligent kid he knows (far smarter than any of Troy and Britta’s kids…and no, he totally _isn’t_  biased), but the way Annie always took an interest in what he was learning, on what problems he was having with the material, well it certainly ensured their son was a shoe-in for the position of valedictorian. 

“C’mon,” Jeff says, slinging an arm around his son and holding out his free hand for Annie to hold. “I’m sure your sisters are more than bored with waiting around for us so how about we go and find them and then treat our graduate here to lunch?”

Annie nods in agreement, smiling up at him and taking his hand.

“Sounds good Dad,” Sebastian replies, and as his son unfurls his diploma to show them, Jeff is surer than he’s ever been that this, that  _fatherhood_ , is his best accomplishment yet. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was pretty much written because after the s6 finale, the idea of a little Winger family makes my heart melt <3 
> 
> Annie and Jeff as proud parents #2k34


End file.
